A 984: Requires a call-blocking service to be provided in state contracts that include procurement of a voice service; provides that a voice service provider shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability for failure of a call-blocking service to block a call, or mistakenly blocking a call that should not have been blocked.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 984 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. STECK, BLANKENBUSH, BUTTENSCHON, COLTON, CRUZ, DeSTEFANO, DINOWITZ, HAWLEY, HYNDMAN, MANKTELOW, McDONOUGH, MORINELLO, RA, REYES, ROZIC, SANTABARBARA, SAYEGH, SIMON, SMULLEN, STIRPE, WALSH, WEPRIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations AN ACT to amend the state finance law, in relation to requiring a call- blocking service to be provided in state contracts that include procurement if a voice service The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The state finance law is amended by adding a new section 2 149 to read as follows: 3 § 149. Automated call software. 1. As used in this section: 4 (a) "voice service" (i) means any service that is interconnected with 5 the public switched telephone network and that furnishes voice communi- 6 cations to an end user using resources from the North American Numbering 7 Plan or any successor to the North American Numbering Plan adopted by 8 the commission under section 251(e)(1) of the federal Communications Act 9 of 1934, as amended; and (ii) includes (A) transmissions from a tele- 10 phone facsimile machine, computer, or other device to a telephone 11 facsimile machine; and (B) without limitation, any service that enables 12 real-time, two-way voice communications, including any service that 13 requires internet protocol-compatible customer premises equipment and 14 permits out-bound calling, whether or not such service is one-way or 15 two-way voice over internet protocol; 16 (b) "caller identification information" means information provided to 17 an end user by a caller identification service regarding the telephone 18 number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call 19 made using a voice service; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD03106-01-5 
 A. 984 2 1 (c) "caller identification service" means any service or device 2 designed to provide the user of the service or device with the telephone 3 number of, or other information regarding the origination of, a call 4 made using a voice service. Such term includes automatic number iden- 5 tification services; and 6 (d) "call-blocking service" means any service that (i) uses reasonable 7 analytics designed to identify unwanted calls; and (ii) blocks calls 8 identified by such analytics. 9 2. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, where a 10 contract that includes the procurement of a voice service is to be 11 awarded by a state agency, public authority or municipality, pursuant to 12 a competitive bidding process or a request for proposal process, such 13 contract shall require that any voice service furnished to the state or 14 any of its political subdivisions shall include a call-blocking service. 15 3. A voice service provider that provides a call-blocking service 16 pursuant to this section shall not be subject to any civil or criminal 17 liability on the basis that such call-blocking service blocked a call 18 that was wanted or failed to block a call that was unwanted. 19 § 2. This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeed- 20 ing the date it shall have become a law.